The Quiet Moments
by Alex Glaven
Summary: Akiko. For Empress dot dot dot's fic challenge.


Isaac: ::in silvery blue "She doesn't own anything, that's all we're saying"::  
  
Quiet Little Moments  
  
by: Akiko  
  
She wasn't perfect, not even close.  
  
But maybe that's what intrigued him about her. That flawed quality of humanity that resided deep within her.  
  
The first time he had seen her...she had been a mystery. A dream in the waking world. A nymph that had left the water to walk among mortals, still retaining ethereal beauty and grace.  
  
That was on top of the Mercury Lighthouse, before he had gotten to know her.  
  
Now instead of some Goddess of Mercury, she was just Mia.  
  
And maybe "just Mia" wasn't quite the right way to say it. Because she wasn't "just" Mia. Of course he could never have put it into words. She was still beautiful, but now he noticed to slight flaws. Like the fact that she sunburned easily and stayed red for days, or her chapped lips, and even her course hands and bitten fingernails.  
  
But she was still beautiful, in a human way.   
  
And mentally she was far below the status of goddess. She was quick to judge, and not quite as quick in everything else. She wasn't an idiot, but she was flighty and air headed, and tended to exhibit little or no common sense.   
  
Despite everything, he would catch himself watching her. Just in the simple moments when she was talking with Jenna and Sheba, or laughing at something Garet had said. And then Ivan would jab him in the side with his elbow and tell him that if he kept on staring at Mia she might actually notice.  
  
And she did notice. Sometimes. In the quiet moments when it felt like they were alone. She would look at him, and he would turn away, wondering if she noticed he had been watching her.  
  
He was looking at her again.  
  
She didn't think he realized that she had noticed. But really, who could blame him? She was such a complete ditz sometimes, it was a wonder she had realized it at all.   
  
The first time she had seen Felix she had nearly felt sorry for him.  
  
The second time she had seen him she had wanted to rip his throat out. He had betrayed his own town after all.  
  
And then he had jumped off of the lighthouse to save Sheba, and she began to have second thoughts about how she felt about him.  
  
Now they saw each other constantly. And in the quiet moments she liked to watch him. That was the only reason she had noticed he watched her quite a bit. But when he was steadfastly pretending he wasn't looking at her, she would watch him instead.   
  
When they had first decided to join forces, he had seemed almost relieved to turn leadership over to Isaac. He had acted out the part of silent brooding warrior for a whole two days. But the combined efforts of Sheba and Jenna wouldn't allow him to continue that little charade. After all, the silent brooding warrior didn't get upset because his sister flirted with anything that stood still long enough.   
  
And that's when she began to notice things about him. Not just how he was overprotective of his one and only little sister, but how he would always help the others, how he was always the first one there, how that one piece of hair would always fall in his eyes no matter how many times he pushed it behind his right ear. Noticing the good things made her notice the bad things. Like how there was a tight hint of pain in his brown eyes every once in a while. How he would sulk for days for unknown reasons.   
  
She wanted to make the pain go away.  
  
She wanted to push that one strand of hair behind his ear for him.  
  
It simply dawned on her, one day. She wasn't in love with Isaac and his blue blue eyes and calm demeanor, or Garet who always made her laugh. She was in love with Felix.   
  
Sulking, boring, moody, mopey old Felix.  
  
They were alone that day, and every time Felix stole glances at Mia, she'd be looking straight at him. He had known for some time that he loved her, but he knew he would never get a chance to tell her. And even if he did, she'd turn him down. He knew she loved someone, but it wasn't him. It couldn't have been him.  
  
"Felix?"  
  
He looked away from the sky that reminded him of her eyes and at her. She was right in front of him, and he had been so far away in his thoughts he hadn't realized it. He took a step back, but she took a step forward and was just as close again.  
  
"Hey, Mia," he turned away a bit, looking at her from the side. "What do you want?"  
  
"I just wanted to tell you something," she moved a little closer and he backed up a step again while she took a step forward.  
  
"What is it?" he retreated another step, she advanced another step.  
  
Neither of them saw the log until he tripped over it. He grabbed her sleeve and dragged her down with him.   
  
"Ah..." he knew he had gone red. He was on the ground, and Mia had fallen right into his lap. She was blushing, too, staring at his face for a moment. "Um...what do you want to tell me?"  
  
"I love you," she reached forward with one hand, ungloved for once, and pushed back some of the hair that had fallen into his eyes. She was looking into his eyes now, as if she could find something there.  
  
He stopped breathing, he was quite certain. It felt like something had jerked loose inside of him and sent a flood of some strange emotion surging through him to tingle down in his fingertips and toes. It didn't help that she was still in his lap and looking him straight in the eye.  
  
"Felix?" she asked after a moment.  
  
"I..." his voice was shaking, so he dropped his tone to a whisper. "I love you too, Mia."  
  
"Oh, sorry," she got off of him and helped him sit up. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine," he smiled at her.  
  
And they had one of those quiet little moments and watched each other for a little while.  
  
This time neither of them looked away.  
  
The End  
  
Cute, ne? Normally I write...just about anything. But I've never written Felix/Mia, so this was a lot of fun. Hope you all enjoyed it!  
  
Isaac: ::in green and gold "Whatever, Aki. Please review, seeing as how you've read"::  
  
Thankee Isaac. Take care, everyone! 


End file.
